Interference in Deployed Ubiquitous Computing Systems

Ricardo Morla (PhD from Lancaster University, now post-doc researcher at UC Irvine), who I met in front of my poster at this year’s Ubicomp, will give a talk on Friday at the Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction, IC Irvine on the Interference in Deployed Ubiquitous Computing Systems.

Abstract: Future ubiquitous computing environments are likely to consist of numerous interacting components, many of which will have been developed in isolation from each other. Unless appropriate measures are taken, interference (where a component’s behaviour in a deployed system differs from its behaviour when in isolation) is likely to be commonplace. In this talk I will discuss the problem of interference in future ubiquitous computing systems and how it can affect many levels of a ubicomp system and be a concern for all ubicomp developers – ranging from those working on hardware and system support to those developing interfaces for user interaction and models of user understanding. I will also present two contributions that provide support for researchers addressing issues of interference in their systems. The first is a conceptual framework that includes a model of interference and generic solutions for preventing interference; the second is a simulation-based toolkit for helping researchers test their applications for interference prior to deployment. Finally, I will show the results of a formative evaluation that we conducted for informing the design of future user studies on conceptual interference frameworks.

Key references to Ricardo Morla’s work during his PhD thesis include:
Ricardo Morla, Nigel Davies. A Framework for Describing Interference in Ubiquitous Computing Environments. PerCom’06 – Fourth Annual IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications, Pisa, Italy, March 2006.

and

Ricardo Morla, Nigel Davies. Evaluating a Location-Based Application: A Hybrid Test and Simulation Environment. IEEE Pervasive Computing, 3(3):48-56, July 2004.

Relation to my thesis: Interferences are part of real-world (non-isolated) ubiquitous settings. This talk goes in the direction of a paper I plan to write on the design and deployment issues designers and administrators of pervasive games must deal with.